A former Premier League forward has recently suggested that Arsenal fans could hinder the club’s chances of winning silverware at the backend of the campaign. Mikel Arteta’s men will go in search of their first major trophy in five years this season. After coming agonisingly close on a number of occasions in the past, many will hope this is finally our year. Arsenal signalled their ambitions by extensively strengthening the squad over the summer, solving problems that hindered progress last season. The Premier League and the Champions League trophies will be the undoubted aim, while Arsenal are firm favourites to win each of the competitions.
Cole questions fan pressure
Former Premier League forward Joe Cole believes Arsenal will be in the mix come April and May but has suggested the Arsenal fans could damage their title chances by putting more pressure on the squad. As reported by Metro, he said:
“If you could fast forward to April or May and Arsenal are still in the Champions League, which I think they will be, the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and they’re still chasing the league. That’s the time they’ll trip themselves up, if they’ve not developed, because they’ve got to be able to work out how to compete every three days with the pressure.”
“And the fans do this silly thing where they start getting nervous, because it’s been such a long time.
“They’ve got to really find a way, Arsenal, at the back end of the season, because there’s no doubt they’ll be there with the quality they’ve got.”
Arsenal’s late-season hurdle
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal buckling under the late-season pressure has been a fairly constant theme throughout his reign. Think back to the top-four near miss of 2021-22 and the title capitulation of the subsequent campaign. As the squad has grown with experience however, the Gunners will undoubtedly be in a better position to handle similar situations moving forward. If Arsenal can just manage to win that elusive trophy then the floodgates could open. Arsenal are set up to excel in the long run as well as the short term and that has been down to smart recruitment by the club.
Coming back to Joe Cole’s comments, what are your honest reactions?
Benjamin Kenneth
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I beg to differ with Joe Cole
The opposite is more likely , recent years have seen considerably improvements in the atmosphere, especially during key matches like the win against Real Madrid.
While the club have a period without trophies after moving to the Emirates, the atmosphere now has been described as electric and has seen a real shift.
Thanks in part to the gaffer, the club by extension and fans groups to create a positive and energetic environment
That’s a lot of nonsense. The fans are behind the team and the players are aware of this. For a group of players who have mostly been through the disappointments of three consecutive runners up seasons, it’s a no brainer that this has to be the season where they believe that the title is there to win. Similarly, the new arrivals have joined Arsenal for a reason, which is to win trophies in the world’s strongest league. Pressure from fans ruining the team’s title hopes? A pathetic kindergarten response.
He never was the brightest button in the box Joe. S and this confirms it.
How he got the job as a pundit is a mystery to me!!
I disagree. There are a lot of fans who have been piling huge pressure on the team. They may be a minority but they are poisonous vocal group.
We have already seen the ridiculous meltdowns from the dropped points earlier this season. In previous seasons we had some supposed Arsenal fans joining pundits and fans of other clubs to call Arsenal players bottlers.
We already have people calling out the manager at every opportunity ignoring the fact that he built this squad and the players believe in him. We have fans who created a petition against an incoming player.
Calling Joe Cole pathetic is in itself pathetic as he is just articulating some of the quite poor behaviour of some fans.
I agree. Joe Cole is spot on. Arsenal fans and Arsenal media pile pressure on this group knowing full well pressure is damaging and can lead to bad performances. Worst still, enemies of our club and our hopes, like Neville and Carragher, invent rubbish like “mikels cowardice and handbrake” and our own fans lap it up. Fans of other clubs like Liverpool and Man Utd don’t do this.
Piling the weight of “22 years of hurt” on backs of players who weren’t even born 22 years ago is just plain dumb, how can they in anyway be responsible for 22 years of hurt? In fact even blaming 3 runners up spots on the club and manger as being chokers is distorting true history – we didn’t have the squad depth in previous years to go the full distance, and we fought hard every week for what we did end up getting. Only this season can you say we have better squad than Man City and Liverpool, not the previous 3 – and even now if you picked a first 11 from all three clubs, Earwig and Isak, Salah and Rodri, VVD, McCalister, Doku, all start and Arsenals first 11 battle against Reindeers, Foden, Allison, dunarumour, Ekitiki, and Wurz for a start as well. So even now we are not even the best first 11 in the Prem.
We need to cheer every 3 Premiership points as being hard won, there the are no give me’s, nor is one of the two major trophy’s a shoe in this season.
Moon Girl,
Who’s blaming them for 22 years of hurt. Like it or not playing for the Arsenal comes with pressure whether your the manager or player. If you can’t handle that, then maybe Arsenal’s not the club for them. It’s that simple.
Do you think that the players under Wenger didn’t have pressure. The difference is they we’re able to handle it. Something the current team have failed to do so far. But here’s hoping that this is the season they finally get over the line and produce that elusive title that we all want to see.
We’ve hurried ourselves too too fast to be carried away by Cole’s statement of good or not good intent. We’re still in the 7th week of the 38th (18%). Until that time the team may become a runaway leader just as Pool did last season and that favourable situation takes away the pressure. I think Chelsea’s Cole’s idea might be a Kiss of Judah to distract us contrary to Arteta’s realistic pragmatic game by game case by case approach.
Cole = 🤡
During the dying embers of Emery’s stint, I remember the players throwing their arms up in the air and generally behaving like prima donnas. Fast forward, they have gone, to be replaced bit by bit with team players.
I have found it to be quite an impressive turnaround and one that is either total luck or part of the so called process. Initially, it was a youth project and slowly more experienced heads came in and now the youth project are in their mid 20s and have become established players with the aging, experienced heads moving on. Combine that with the number of academy players coming through, then Arsenal is really in a great position.
The big test will be the mentality however, but the comeback at the weekend was an impressive sign of better things to come. (fingers firmly crossed) The new signings this season, and Calafiori & Merino from the season before have also been excellent. The squad is deeper and I’d be hard pushed to name one of them that isn’t good enough to be there.
As for the fans having a nervous disposition, I am a nervous viewer, either watching on the box or at the ground, and that hasn’t changed in nearly 60 years. We were known as the Highbury library for good reason. It doesn’t appear to be in the Arsenal DNA to spend 90 minutes, shirtless in cold conditions, banging drums and playing the trumpet when on the verge of a 3-0 home drubbing, like some supporters of other clubs do. Perhaps Arteta would consider cheer leaders and Win the dog on an agility course at half time to create a feel good factor
SueP,
Don’t give Arteta idea’s.🤦♂️😂🤣